Sovereign of Forbidden Spirits

CHAPTER 7 THE TRUTH THEY BURIED

For the first time in his life, Jesse Fletcher learned that his parents had been murdered.

Rain hammered the ruined battlefield with relentless force while the revelation echoed through his mind like a blade carving through flesh. Every breath became heavier. Every heartbeat sounded louder. The storm around him suddenly felt distant compared to the violence erupting inside his chest.

“That bloodline still exists?” the masked assassin whispered.

The man stood several feet away, completely frozen, staring at Jesse as though he had witnessed a ghost rise from the grave.

Jesse pressed one trembling hand against the deep wound across his side as blood slipped between his fingers. Beside him, Noxaris growled low in its throat, its massive body positioned protectively in front of him. Weak shadow flames flickered around the beast’s cracked black scales, casting violent flashes of gold and darkness across the shattered ruins.

The other executioners immediately noticed the hesitation. “What are you doing?” one of them snapped angrily.

The assassin ignored him completely. His gaze never left Jesse’s face. “How old are you?” he suddenly asked.

Jesse frowned despite the pain tearing through his body. “What?”

“How old are you?” the assassin repeated, more urgently this time.

“Nineteen.” The assassin staggered backward as though the answer itself had struck him.

“That’s impossible…”

The tallest executioner stepped forward, his silver cloak snapping violently in the rain. “Enough of this. Kill him now.” But the other assassin still hesitated. That was when Jesse noticed something deeply unsettling. The man was afraid not of Noxaris, but of him.

The assassin slowly lowered his blade until the weapon pointed toward the flooded ground beneath his feet.

“What was your mother’s name?” he asked quietly.

Jesse’s pulse quickened instantly.

The question felt wrong in a way he could not explain, dangerous and deliberate. Like a door opening toward something terrible.

Still, he answered. “Elena Fletcher.”

The assassin visibly paled beneath the silver mask. One of the other executioners cursed immediately. “You idiot,” he hissed sharply. “Do not say that name here.”

Jesse’s breathing slowed as confusion spread through him. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

For several long seconds, nobody answered him.

Rain poured through the shattered battlefield while distant thunder rolled above Ashveil Academy. Broken pillars surrounded them like the ruins of some forgotten kingdom, and Noxaris remained crouched protectively beside Jesse, its single golden eye fixed on the assassins with growing hostility.

Finally, the hesitant executioner spoke. “Your parents were researchers,” he said quietly.

Jesse stiffened immediately. “My parents are dead.”

“They died because of what they discovered.” The words struck harder than the blade wound across Jesse’s ribs.

“What are you talking about?” The assassin’s posture shifted uneasily. He looked like a man standing on the edge of forbidden knowledge, fully aware that one more step could destroy him.

“Years ago,” he continued carefully, “a classified expedition entered ruins beneath the western wastelands near the Hollow Mountains.”

“That’s enough,” the tallest executioner barked as he stepped forward violently, but the assassin ignored him.

“Your parents were part of that expedition,” he continued. “They were searching for records connected to Myth Beasts.”

Jesse’s mind reeled instantly. Myth Beasts: the same forbidden creatures Silas had warned him about.

“No…” Jesse whispered. The assassin nodded grimly. “They found something the Council buried long ago.”

Before Jesse could demand another explanation, the tallest executioner suddenly moved.

A silver blade flashed through the rain like lightning.

CLANG!

The hesitant assassin barely blocked the strike in time. “You traitorous fool!” the taller executioner roared. The battlefield erupted into chaos again.

Jesse stumbled backward while the assassins turned on one another beneath the storm. Spirit energy exploded through the ruins as blades collided violently, shattering ancient stone pillars around them.

Noxaris immediately sensed the shift.

The chains wrapped around its body rattled furiously. “Run!” the hesitant assassin shouted toward Jesse. “Run now!”

Jesse did not hesitate this time. He grabbed Noxaris and sprinted deeper into the ruins while explosions of spirit energy illuminated the battlefield behind them. Pieces of broken stone crashed around them as the executioners clashed beneath the storm.

Pain burned through Jesse’s side with every step he took. Blood soaked through his torn clothes, warm against his freezing skin, but the wound inside his mind hurt far worse. My parents were murdered. The realization poisoned everything inside him.

For years, he had believed sickness and poverty destroyed his family. He had spent his life resenting weakness, resenting fate, resenting the cruelty of the world. But this was different. People had hunted them down, killed them, all because of knowledge, all because they had uncovered the truth.

A dark rage slowly twisted inside Jesse’s chest, growing heavier with every thought.

Noxaris glanced toward him while limping beside him through the rain-soaked ruins. Through their contract bond, Jesse could feel the beast’s concern clearly. The creature felt his hatred growing.

By the time they reached the lower cliff passage beneath the academy ruins, Jesse nearly collapsed against the stone wall from blood loss. Then another figure emerged from the darkness ahead.

Silas Mordane.

The old Beast Monarch looked furious. “I leave you alone for one night,” Silas growled, “and the Council sends executioners after you.”

Jesse stared at him through rain and exhaustion. “You knew.”

Silas stopped immediately. “Knew what?”

“My parents.” Something subtle changed in the old man’s expression.

Jesse stepped forward despite the agony tearing through his body. “You knew they were murdered.” The silence that followed answered him before Silas ever spoke. That silence confirmed everything.

Jesse’s voice sharpened instantly. “You knew.” Silas closed his eyes briefly before releasing a heavy breath.

“Yes.”

The single word broke something inside Jesse.

“All this time…” he whispered. “You knew?”

“I suspected,” Silas corrected quietly. “Tonight only confirmed it.”

Jesse laughed bitterly, though the sound carried no humor whatsoever.

“My whole life,” he said quietly, “I thought my mother died because we were poor.”

Silas remained silent.

“I thought nobody helped us because we were weak.” The rage inside Jesse deepened until it felt molten.

“But they hunted us.” Thunder shook the cliffs overhead. Noxaris slowly moved closer beside him again, its enormous body shielding him instinctively from danger. Always protective.

Jesse looked toward Silas with burning eyes. “They killed my family because of knowledge?”

Silas’s expression darkened heavily. “No,” he answered quietly. “They killed them because they discovered the truth.”

Those words settled inside Jesse as poison. Hatred spread through him so quickly that it frightened even him. Not simple anger Hatred The kind capable of consuming a person completely.

Silas noticed immediately.

“Careful, boy.”

Jesse laughed coldly. “Careful?” he repeated. “The Council murdered my parents.”

“They murder anyone who threatens the system.”

“That system protects monsters.”

“Yes,” Silas answered grimly. “And if hatred controls you now, you will become one too.”

The warning struck Jesse harder than he expected because part of him already understood the truth behind those words. Deep down, he did not want justice anymore. He wanted revenge, and the difference between those two desires terrified him.

Silas stepped closer slowly. “Your parents were brilliant researchers,” the old man continued. “Your mother especially.”

Jesse’s breathing slowed slightly. “You knew her?”

Silas nodded once. “Elena Fletcher was one of the few people brave enough to openly question ancient history.” Noxaris suddenly lifted its head. Its golden eye narrowed slightly.

Silas noticed the reaction immediately before continuing more carefully. “She believed the Beast Dominion was built on lies.”

Jesse frowned deeply. “What lies?”

Silas hesitated. That hesitation alone revealed how dangerous the answer truly was.

Finally, the old man spoke, “The Council teaches humanity that Myth Beasts were monsters sealed away by the gods.”

Rain continued pouring around them while distant thunder rolled across the ruined cliffs. “But your mother discovered records suggesting something entirely different,” Silas said quietly.

Jesse’s pulse quickened again. “What records?”

Silas looked toward Noxaris. “She discovered evidence that Myth Beasts once ruled beside humanity… not against it.”

The world suddenly felt colder.

Jesse stared at him in disbelief. “That’s impossible.”

“Exactly,” Silas murmured. “Which is why the Council erased the truth.”

Noxaris remained perfectly still now, listening and watching.

Silas lowered his voice further. “Your mother’s final expedition uncovered ruins older than the Dominion itself. Inside those ruins were ancient chain altars bearing the same symbols carved into your beast.”

Jesse’s eyes widened immediately. “The chains…”

Silas nodded grimly. “She encountered something there.” A terrible feeling settled into Jesse’s stomach.

“What did she find?”

Silas’s gaze hardened. “We never learned.”

Frustration flared instantly inside Jesse. “What do you mean you never learned?”

“Because three days after returning from the ruins,” Silas answered quietly, “your parents disappeared.”

The rain suddenly sounded deafening. Fragments of childhood memories resurfaced violently inside Jesse’s mind. His mother holds him tightly at night. The fear hidden inside her eyes, the way she constantly checked the windows during their final weeks together. She knew she had known they were being hunted.

Jesse slowly clenched his fists until blood dripped from his palms. “They murdered them.”

Silas did not deny it. “They tried killing you, too,” the old man admitted quietly.

Jesse looked up sharply. “What?”

“Your mother hid you before the Council arrived.”

 

Noxaris suddenly growled. The sound came out low and unstable, and the chains wrapped around its body rattled softly in response.

Silas frowned immediately. “Something’s wrong.” But Jesse barely heard him. His thoughts spiraled violently out of control. His mother had died protecting him. The Council hunted children. The entire system was rotten to its core. Hatred flooded through him so heavily that breathing became difficult, and through their contract bond.

Noxaris felt every piece of it. The creature suddenly staggered backward. Its massive body trembled violently. Not from weakness, from agitation.

Silas’s expression changed instantly. “Back away from it.”

Jesse frowned in confusion. “What?”

Then Silas asked carefully, “What was your mother’s full name?”

“Elena Vaelor Fletcher.” The reaction was immediate.

Noxaris exploded with power. Dark energy erupted violently from the beast’s body as ancient golden chains burst outward in every direction, smashing through the surrounding ruins. The ground shook beneath them while nearby pillars collapsed into rubble.

Noxaris roared in agony. Its golden eye burned brighter than ever before, and the strange ancient symbol inside its pupil reappeared violently.

Silas stepped backward in visible shock.

“No…”

Jesse stared at the beast in horror. “Noxaris!” The creature slowly turned toward him, and for the first time since their contract formed, Jesse sensed something horrifying through their bond: recognition.